Betty's Summer Vacation

By Christopher Durang

Pitch-black humor and brutal social commentary from the Tony Award-winning playwright: “Relentlessly fierce, relentlessly funny.”—Ben Brantley, The New York Times

Looking for a little rest and time by herself, Betty rents a summer share at the beach. But Betty's luck turns when this sensible Everywoman gets drawn into the chaotic world of some very unsavory housemates: her friend Trudy, who talks too much; the lewd, semi-naked Buck, who tries to have sex with everyone; and Keith, a serial killer who hides in his room with a mysterious hatbox. With sand between her toes, walking a thin line between sanity and survival, poor Betty will leave her summer vacation more terrorized than tan—in this Obie Award-winning play from Christopher Durang, who “proves to be every bit as sharp and caustic as England’s Joe Orton” (David Kaufman, New York Daily News).

“Not only wickedly funny but a commentary on the state of American culture.”—Curtis Ellis, MSNBC

“A comedian whose fury takes the form of farce.”—John Lahr, The New Yorker

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Sep 12, 2017
• ISBN: 9780802188908

Book preview

Betty's Summer Vacation

Works of Christopher Durang published by Grove Press

THE MARRIAGE OF BETTE AND BOO

LAUGHING WILD AND BABY WITH THE BATHWATER

CHRISTOPHER DURANG EXPLAINS IT ALL FOR YOU

THE NATURE AND PURPOSE OF THE UNIVERSE

‘DENTITY CRISIS

TITANIC

THE ACTOR'S NIGHTMARE

SISTER MARY IGNATIUS EXPLAINS IT ALL FOR YOU

BEYOND THERAPY

BETTY'S SUMMER VACATION

CHRISTOPHER DURANG

Betty's Summer Vacation

title

Grove Press

New York

Copyright © 1999 by Christopher Durang

Foreword copyright © 1999 by Tim Sanford

Introduction copyright © 1999 by Michael Feingold

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Any members of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or publishers who would like to obtain permission to include the work in an anthology, should send their inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.

CAUTION: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that Betty's Summer Vacation is subject to a royalty. It is fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and all British Commonwealth countries, and all countries covered by the International Copyright Union, the Pan-American Copyright Convention, and the Universal Copyright Convention. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion picture, recitation, public reading, radio broadcasting, television, video or sound taping, all other forms of mechanical or electronic reproduction, such as information storage and retrieval systems and photocopying, and rights of translation info foreign languages, are strictly reserved.

First-class professional, stock, and amateur applications for permission to perform it, and those other rights stated above, must be made in advance to Helen Merrill Ltd., 295 Lafayette Street, Suite 915, New York, NY 10012.

FIRST EDITION

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Durang, Christopher, 1949–

Betty's summer vacation / by Christopher Durang.

p. cm.

ISBN 0-8021-3661-3

eISBN: 978-0-8021-8890-8

1. Summer homes—Drama. 2. Young women—Drama. 3. Vacations—Drama. I. Title.

PS3554.U666 B38 2000

812’.54—dc2199-051709

00 01 02 0310 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To John Augustine and Kristine Nielsen

Foreword

For me, as both a citizen and a producer, Betty's Summer Vacation arrived on my desk in the nick of time. As a dyed-in-the-wool liberal humanist, I'd always assumed the proper response to our burgeoning junk culture was to sequester myself into a little ivory tower of civility. But lately the waves seemed to be turning tidal, rendering my little tower into a crumbling sand castle. Try as I might, whenever the latest scandal or horror hit, to duck into my office and close the door behind me, eventually the tabloid ooze would start seeping under my door and suck me into it. During late-night channel surfing, my guard would fall, and I'd pause to hear the talking heads and waggish stand-ups holding forth or cracking wise about whatever latest headline. By the time The New York Times would begin holding forth their in-depth news analyses and tsk-tsking Op-Ed-page sociological tomes, you would inevitably find me poring over them.

As a producer of new American plays who oversees the reading of twelve to fifteen hundred play submissions annually, I found the glut of misguided efforts to skewer or portray this state of affairs perhaps even more dispiriting. Hand me a play and tell me it's a hilarious satire on our tabloid culture and watch my eyes glaze over. The targets are too easy. The results usually seem shrill and rote. On the other hand, for me, the kind of theater that seeks to probe the dark underbelly of society with grim realism usually seems voyeuristic and sensationalistic. How can the violence of the world ever be real to us, especially when it gets translated into infotainment within minutes of its occurrence? Betty's Summer Vacation, however, follows a much different route through these poles of absurdity and horror. The first act follows an inverse dynamic from that created by tabloid events in real life where repugnance deteriorates rapidly into sick humor, beginning with a breezy nonchalance that curdles into revulsion. Act Two one-ups itself by shifting focus from the lurid contents of the world (which, by the way, have remained offstage and are therefore completely unreal to us anyway), to our reaction to and appetite for these events. Thus we essentially witness the tabloidization of the world. In the face of this inexorable, degrading force, Betty becomes the lone voice of reason, arguing sensibly and with increasing exasperation for the basic, humane tenets of civilization. But Betty might as well be Alice in Wonderland with Voices from the Ceiling playing the role of Red Queen.

The achievement of Betty's Summer Vacation seems even more satisfying when viewed in the context of Christopher's recent artistic history. Many would agree Durang's early career reached its apex with The Marriage of Bette and Boo, produced at the Public Theater in 1985. Few remember his next play, Laughing Wild, produced at Playwrights Horizons in 1987. This bravely personal and critically important transitional play, in which Chris also acted, costarring with E. Katherine Kerr, was roundly dismissed at the time, treated almost as if it wasn't a play at all. In retrospect, it seems ahead of its time, uncannily foreshadowing the deluge of performance artists of recent years. But it also marks a shift in his work more directly toward social satire. The targets of his earlier work were frequently the grotesqueries that imprint us in childhood, but with Laughing Wild his perspective seems more adult, in a way, focusing more on the skewed indignities we endure every day. Chris's output tapered off somewhat in the following decade, but he did wrestle again with these contemporary hobgoblins in Media Amok, produced at the American Repertory Theatre in 1992, and Sex and Longing, Chris's dark, ambitious mock epic, produced by Lincoln Center in 1996. While this production featured a game, Valkyrian performance by Sigourney Weaver and an exquisite comedic turn by Dana Ivey, it seemed to get swallowed up by the Cort Theatre, and even Chris himself admits it was overwritten. Still, the torrent of incontinent critical vitriol it unleashed seems puzzling even now. One wondered if